THE REASON WHY. 251 



"There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." i COETNTHIASS xv. 



purposes of breathing, or simply to raise it to our moutlis, as we do water 

 when we drink, it would be the sole occupation of our lives we could do 

 nothing else. For this reason, God has sent the air to us, and not required us 

 to go to the air. And the great error of man is, that in too many instances, 

 he shuts off the supply from himself, and brings on disease and pain by 

 inhaling a poisonous compound, instead of air of a healthful kind, which bears 

 an adaptation to the wants of life. 



Whilst the rooms of our house are filled with air, it is otherwise with water, 

 which we require in less degree than air. If we have not the artificial 

 means by which water is brought to our houses, through th ; pipes of a water 

 company, there is a spring or a pump in the garden ; or in the absence of these, 

 a good sound cask, standing at the end of our house, forming a receptacle 

 to the water-pipes that surround it, provides us with a supply of water distilled 

 from the clouds. If we were to drink a good draught of water once a day, that 

 would be sufficient for all the purposes of life, as far as regards the alimentary 

 uses of water. Man is, tharefore, allowed to go to the stream for his drink, and 

 is required to raise it to his lips at those moments when he uses it. 



Although, in breathing, man separates the oxygen of the air from the 

 nitrogen thereof, he does not separate the oxygen of the water from the hydrogen 

 Water, in fact, undergoes no change in the body, excepting that of admixture 

 with the substances of the body. And its uses are, to moisten, to cool, to 

 cleanse, and also to nouri-.li the parts with which it comes in contact. But it 

 affords no nourishment of itself; it mixes with the blood, of which it forms a 

 material part, and is the means of conveying the nourishment of the blood to 

 every part of the system. After it lias filled this office, and taken up impurities 

 that required to be removed, it is cast out of the system again, without 

 undergoing any chemical change. 



Man's body is to his Soul, in many respects, what a house is to its occupant. 

 But how superior is tho dwelling which God erected, to that which man has 

 built. Reader, come out of yourself, and in imagination realise the abstraction 

 of the Soul from the body. Make an effort of thought, and do not relinquish 

 that effort, until you fancy that you see your image seated on a chair before 

 you. And now proceed to ask yourself certain questions respecting your bodily 

 tenement questions which, perchance, have never occurred to you before ; but 

 which will impress themselves the more forcibly upon you, in proportion as you 

 realise for a moment the idea of jour Soul examining the body which it 

 inhabits. There sits before you a form of exquisite proportions, with reference 

 to the mode of life it has to pursue the wants of the Soul for which it has 

 to care, and which it has to guard, under the direction of that Soul, its 

 owner and master. 



Over the brows that mark the intellectual front of that fine form, there 

 fall the auburn locks of youth, or the grey hair of venerable age. Each 

 of those hairs is curiously organised. If you take a branch of a tree, and 

 cut it across, you will find curious markings caused by vessels of various 

 structure, all necessary to the existence of the plant. In the centre will be 

 found cither a hollow tube, or a space occupied by a soft substance called 

 pith. Each hair of your head is as curiously formed as the branch of a 

 tree, and in a manner not dissimilar, though its parts are so minute 

 that the unaided eye cannot discern them. Every hair has a root, just as a 

 tree has, and through this root it receives its nourishment. As the vessel! 



